The global cloud gaming industry is poised to record a magnificent 188% revenue jump to hit $4 billion by the end of 2021 according to research firm Omdia.com. By 2025, the sector will be worth $12 billion, a testament to the massive investments being directed toward cloud gaming.
Surprisingly, the industry is pretty young and was worth less than $100 million five years ago. It only grew popular in 2019. And now, it’s projected to cause immense disruptions in the tech industry.
How Does Cloud Gaming Work?
Cloud gaming describes the process of streaming video games in real-time rather than through local devices. It’s the reason why we have online multiplayer gaming—playing games with more than one person over the Internet.
Cloud gaming connects players through remote servers located in different parts of the world. Usually, gaming is fastest when you connect to a server situated close to you. Otherwise, it can lead to lagging—a delay between the time you make an input to a game and when it responds.
Although it has been around for a decade, cloud gaming is only getting popular now because there are faster Internet connections. What’s more, gaming devices have become advanced and affordable, leading to increased adoption globally.
How does it Work?
One of cloud gaming’s best benefits is that it eliminates the need to download files. And in doing so, it popularizes gaming, including online games. Think about it. Back when playing games that involved downloading these games, the iGaming fan base was small.
But fast forward to 2020 and millions of people identify as online players. The explanation is that slots and card games have become easier to access and convenient. And that has something to do with cloud gaming.
No need to download games. No need to install Adobe Flash. All you need is to sign up for an account at a decent online and you can play all your favorite games.
Canucks can find the best-rated online gaming platforms in Canada at https://bit.ly/3m7FQUU. On the other hand, people from the US can find operators licensed to operate in their state: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and West Virginia all license online gaming.”
How much does Cloud Gaming Cost?
Another reason cloud gaming is predicted to explode in popularity is that it’s cheap. In fact, it’s cheaper than buying games you must install and run on your console, PC, or mobile devices. Think about it.
Many video games cost over $50 these days. So, if you buy ten games within one year, you’ll have spent $500. Then there’s the issue of storage. Advanced games take up 500GB to 1TB of storage in your devices.
By comparison, cloud gaming costs an average of $10 per month and gives you access to dozens of games. And here’s the best part. They store the video game files for you so that you can use your PC’s disk space for more important stuff.
Who’s Cloud gaming best for?
Unlike most technologies—say mobile gaming—cloud gaming isn’t growing at the expense of other inventions. Mobile gaming has been stifling the growth of console and PC gaming. But with cloud gaming, everyone seems to win.
Video game players can save money and disk space. On the flip side, developers can make more money now that cloud gaming is growing popular. Of course, gamers can also play their favorite games offline, usually after downloading large files.
But for everyone with reliable Internet connections, cloud gaming is the way to go. The only time when cloud gaming can become a burden is when developers increase subscription prices or remove players’ favorite games.
Is Mobile Gaming Effective on the Cloud?
As we mentioned earlier, mobile gaming is one of the reasons for cloud gaming’s growing success. Over two billion people own smartphones and many of them play mobile games regularly.
Lately, mobile devices have become incredibly powerful, performing nearly every task computers do. They also handle the same technology, from graphics and video resolutions to computing power and programming.
As a result, the standard iPhone or Android device can support advanced video games hassle-free. That also means they can support cloud gaming. Due to that, hundreds of developers have been creating cloud-based mobile games in the past five years.
Presently, nearly every mobile game on play stores can be played offline or over the Internet. This has allowed for the growth of a mobile-focused gaming community that consists of casual and professional players.
Is cloud gaming the future of eSports?
This could be a game-changer if it were to happen. But as things stand, there’s a long way to go before the entire eSports community turns to cloud gaming.
For starters, there would be a need for reliably fast Internet connections. That’s the only way to play complex video games through the cloud efficiently. Otherwise, slow Internet connectivity slows gaming so much that it becomes a nightmare.
The other challenge is price. As we mentioned, many cloud gaming companies, like Google Stadia and Xbox Game Pass have affordable price plans. However, the cheap plans allow only a limited number of games.
So, for you to access all your favorite video games through the cloud, you might have to pay up. When you add Internet costs, then cloud gaming becomes a challenge for many people. Fortunately, these issues could be fixed with time. And when that happens, there will be no stopping cloud gaming from dominating in eSports.
Cloud Gaming: Conclusion
Cloud gaming takes away the burden of storing video game files from your computer and console. Instead, these files are kept in remote servers through which you can stream video games like people stream Netflix movies.
But will cloud gaming achieve the massive success experts are projecting? Time will tell. Here’s why. On the one hand, cloud gaming is growing fast in both the video game world. On the flip side, it will take time for everyone to access the stable Internet connections required to stream complex games.
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